On Sunday May 22nd the Rivera Cuale team hosted a river clean-up of the adjacent Cuale River. In a joint effort with local not-for-profit PEACE, Vallarta Adventures, and members of the Puerto Vallarta Garden Club and community, we were able to gather forty-two large bags of trash, five tires and a broken plastic chair in a mere hour and a half.
Determination was in the air as residents, area children, and tourist-volunteers and their families gathered in the entrance and on the grass. Quickly we broke into groups and assigned different areas of the river to each group. As it was approaching the end of the dry season, the river was fairly low – strong currents were not a concern for our heroic volunteers of all ages.
By working together we finished the task at hand with relative ease. Many thanks go out to all who showed up, to Vallarta Adventures for helping us get organized on site and for hauling out the trash, and also to PEACE for their amazing recruitment prowess! The combined community effort made this an unforgettable day and went a long way to lessening the amount of garbage that will sadly make its way out to the Bay of Banderas once the rains start.
At the end of the day, we shared food and beverages, and the kids some took part in arts and crafts as well as our sustainable gardening project, the Rivera Cuale-PEACE Community Garden.
In conclusion the experience on the whole was educational, beneficial for the community and environment, and most importantly, fun! We look forward to our next Cuale River clean-up day!
